The invention relates in a printing machine having a cleaning tool and a tilting clamp mechanism (or tilting over-center-mechanism) for holding the cleaning tool in different positions. The invention also relates to a printing machine having a cleaning device.
German Patent DE 44 22 612 C1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,112, teaches a cleaning device of that type, having tilting clamp mechanisms which are referred to in the reference as knee lever configurations. Those configurations are held by pressure springs of the tilting clamp mechanisms in a transmission position in which a doctor blade functioning as the cleaning tool contacts a cylinder that must be cleaned, after a dead position of the transmission is overshot. A trough carrying the doctor blades can only be removed from the printing machine, for instance in order to clean the trough, together with the tilting clamp mechanisms that are attached to the trough. Since the connection of the trough and the tilting clamp mechanisms cannot be undone without a tool, it is difficult to handle the trough and the doctor blade during their removal and cleaning.
German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 43 28 834 A1 also describes a cleaning device having a swivel mechanism which does not have a dead position and which is therefore not a tilting clamp mechanism, but is rather what is known as a blocking clamp mechanism.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a cleaning device in a printing machine and a printing machine with a cleaning device, which overcome the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and in which the cleaning device is easy to handle outside the printing machine.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a cleaning device for a printing machine, comprising a cleaning tool. A tilting clamp mechanism is provided for holding the cleaning tool in different positions. A coupling device is provided for coupling and uncoupling the cleaning tool and the tilting clamp mechanism to one another.
The coupling device makes it possible to detach the cleaning tool from the tilting clamp mechanism, so that the cleaning tool can be removed from the printing machine for maintenance without the tilting clamp mechanism. Following maintenance, the cleaning tool can be inserted into the printing machine again and drivingly connected to the tilting clamp mechanism by way of the coupling device. It is particularly advantageous that the cleaning tool can be detached without a tool by pulling the cleaning tool out of or away from the tilting mechanism, and that the cleaning tool can also be connected without a tool by placing the cleaning tool in or on the tilting clamp mechanism. In this type of realization of the coupling device as a plug connection, there is no need to loosen screws or the like, and therefore the cleaning tool can be coupled and decoupled very quickly.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the tilting clamp mechanism includes a spring. The tilting clamp mechanism is arbitrarily movable into a lower position in which the spring holds the cleaning tool at a distance from a surface to be cleaned, and an upper position in which the spring holds the cleaning tool at the surface to be cleaned.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the surface to be cleaned is a circumferential surface of a cylinder.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the tilting clamp mechanism includes a rod about which the spring is wound like a screw.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the tilting clamp mechanism is secured at a printing machine frame. It therefore remains disposed in the printing machine when the cleaning tool is removed from the printing machine.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, there is provided a trough. The cleaning tool is a blade secured at the trough. In accordance with yet a further feature of the invention, the tilting clamp mechanism has a journal. The coupling device is a coupling having a first coupling half disposed at the trough and a second coupling half disposed at the journal. In accordance with yet an added feature of the invention, the second coupling half is a groove formed in the journal, and the first coupling half is a profiled pin disposed at the trough and form-lockingly fitted in the groove. In accordance with yet an additional feature of the invention, the tilting clamp mechanism is one of two tilting clamp mechanisms. The trough is a torsionally-rigid synchronous shaft drivingly interconnecting the tilting clamp mechanisms for synchronous adjustment of the tilting clamp mechanisms.
With the objects of the invention in view, there is also provided a printing machine, comprising a cleaning device according to the invention.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a cleaning device in a printing machine, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.